My only qualm when I write these blog posts is about how ignorant I must often sound.  I sometimes try to put myself in the shoes of a local who might be reading what I write, who could be cringing at every second sentence!  So my apologies in advance for any misinformation or misinterpretation that I might spread.  I’m just a tourist relying on the power of Google!   Some people have asked me to share a map of where (in the world) we actually are – so here are some maps to give you a little more context.

My summary: Borneo is a very large island – the third largest in the world – ‘owned’ by three separate countries: Indonesia (down the bottom, the state of Kalimantan), Brunei (tiny country up the top) and Malaysia (the two states of Sarawak and Sabah). As per Wikipedia: The island is politically divided among three countries: Malaysia and Brunei in the north, and Indonesia to the south.[1] Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory. In the north, the East Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo. The sovereign state of Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo’s land area. A little more than half of the island is in the Northern Hemisphere including Brunei and the Malaysian portion, while the Indonesian portion spans both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Borneo is home to one of the oldest rainforests in the world.

We began our day with a general wander, osstensibly in search of Sarawak laksa for Dan to eat for breakfast (laksa isn’t my thing, and the girls are sticking with the toast and/or milo cornflakes at the hotel).  As always, I enjoyed examining the variety of building architecture and checking out the wares that were on offer in the shophouses.

We came across kek lapis, also known as Sarawak layer cake.  This is a local speciality, along with protected naming.  Wikipedia has more information: Sarawakian modern layered cakes can be divided into two categories: cakes with ordinary layers and cakes with patterns, motifs, or shapes. All must have at least two colours. The cake can be baked in an oven or microwave. The batter uses butter or vegetable oil, milk and eggs, and requires a strong arm or electric mixer to be properly prepared. The baked cake has a high, firm texture and the layers are fastened together with jam or a similarly sticky sweet substance. More detailed cakes often require special moulds to maintain the perfect layer thickness.

The cake was delicious!  We decided on red velvet cake and chocolate chip cake.  Some are arranged into spectacular patterns, with the layers cut and stacked at angles.  Very fancy!  Then it was time to continue on along the waterfront.

Yes, I found fabric!  I bought a few pieces from Fabriko, all in cotton, each chosen by a different member of my family to be turned into something eventually.  We chose local designs and motifs, printed with modern colours and inks.  There are lots of ‘batiks’ for sale in the tourist shops and markets that aren’t actually batik, but are printed, as well as lots of ‘ikat’ that is also printed.  However this shop appears to have an excellent range across styles and price points.

We found Dan his laksa!  Sarawak laksa is also well known and a highly regarded speciality.  I found this information about it: The origins of Sarawak laksa are not set in stone, but according to Edgar Ong in an article in Flavours magazine, the local legend is that a Chinese Teochew immigrant from Guangzhou named Goh Lik Teck first began peddling his noodle dish along Kuching’s Carpenter Street in 1945.  The dish was only made up of six ingredients, which is how it got its name – the Hokkien term for six sounds like “lak” and “sa” is slang for vermicelli. An alternative tale is one derived from the co-mingling of the Chinese and Malay cultures, which allegedly led to the term laksa from the conjoining of the words “lak” which meant “spicy” locally, and “sa”, which in colloquial Hokkien means to grab whatever is available – which often meant vermicelli, as it was a pantry staple.

Dan said that it was delicious – the best laksa he’s ever had!  He couldn’t detect coconut milk, and the flavours were ‘exquisitely balanced in terms of spiciness and saltiness’.  From there were proceeded to the Chinese History Museum (with an unfortunate slip on wet tiles for me on the way, resulting in a very bruised hip/shoulder/arm and bleeding elbow and a cracked phone screen.  I’m okay, just sore).  The museum shares information about the different local dialect groups, explaining where they were originally from in China and the trades and employment and locations that they settled in.  Exhibits include the early trade routes, initial migration from various regions of China, geographical distribution, the early pioneers, traditional trading activities, the formation of trade and community associations, political history and the involvement of the Chinese community in modern, multi-racial Sarawak.

At this stage it had been raining since before dawn, and our original thought of a short boat trip on the Sarawak River wasn’t very appealing.  We went on a cat statue hunt instead.

But then we found the Upside Down House!  The photos really do tell the story.  Lots of family fun on a rainy day!

In the afternoon we headed to the Sarawak Cultural Village.  This is described as Sarawak’s Living Museum. There are replica buildings representing every major ethnic group in Sarawak mainly the Bidayuh, Iban, Orang Ulu, Penan, Melanau, Malay & Chinese. All buildings are staffed with members of the ethnic groups in traditional costume and carrying out traditional activities. We had a guide with us who was able to provide us with more information about each building and the community who normally lived in it.  You can read more about each type of building here.

In the Chinese house we were shown the pepper vine and tools that are used in harvesting and processing.  Pepper is an extremely important local product.  The vines are trained to grow up stakes of ironwood, then are harvested by hand when ripe.  Black pepper is left out in the sun to dry, and white pepper has the black skins removed by hand.

The processing of bird’s nests used for bird’s nest soup was also explained.  After harvesting, the swift nests are soaked in water and the fluff and feathers separated from the saliva strands by hand.  Extremely labour intensive – and extremely expensive to buy!

The Malay house was very appealing with dark timbers, plenty of ventilation and pretty floral curtains.  There was also a cheeky macaque helping herself to leftover rice in a pot – then sneakily stealing some biscuits from the maker!

The tall house was definitely tall!  On very high stilts, with multiple storeys.  Check out those steps carved into a log.  You’d certainly get very fit running up and down!  Multiple families live in this style of building.

This gentleman had a number of carved knives on display.  He also told us about a wood that acted as a deterrent to snakes and scorpions – it smelled a little like lemongrass when sanded.  I need to google this!

This house was also shared by a number of families.  Once again, it was very tall and spacious.  With those stairs!

Dan had a ball trying to use a blow pipe accurately.  It takes a very strong puff from deep in the diaphragm to get the dart moving fast enough to cover a decent distance!

I’ve run out of time today to properly caption the photos that we took at the cultural village.  It was definitely worth going to – I feel that we learned a great deal about the ethinic communities that live in Sarawak.  I encourage you to have a read of the Wikipedia page about the demographics of Sarawak.  The original communities are still the majority of the population.

You’ve probably worked out by now that I am the organiser in my family.  I organise our lives, I organise our holidays.  So it was a little unusual that I let yesterday pretty much evolve.  I had a vague idea of what we might do and what direction we might walk in, then we just let whatever happened, happen.

 

The day started off with rain – just like it’s pouring down as I type, in fact!  Maybe pre-sunrise drenching is typical here.  We’d all had the usual rotten sleep that is to be expected on your first night somewhere new.  The rest of the family slept in quite late, then with a little prompting from me eventually got up and dressed and we headed out the door.

Directly across from our hotel is the Hong San Si Temple.  This is a Chinese/Taoist temple and is a historical building that dates back to 1848 (with renovations, unsurprisingly).  It was extremely beautiful and detailed inside.  I never know quite where to look when there is so much intricacy to admire!  We noticed that some sections of roof were open with carved stone troughs on the floor beneath.  When we took a look inside there were turtles!

We’ve noticed a number of magnificent murals around Kuching.  They can be spotted on walls up high, down laneways, pretty much anywhere that there would have been a previously blank canvas.  And there’s no graffiti that we’ve spotted.  They add wonderful atmosphere.

Our wanderings took us down Jalan Carpenter, a heritage street lined with a mixture of  small shops and traders and coffee shops – most of which were closed as it was Sunday.  We did however happen upon another Chinese temple, Hiang Tiang Siang Ti Temple.  It was a larger temple than the one we’d visited earlier, with fish instead of turtles, and was buzzing with activity.  A kind gentleman informed us that we should return at 6pm that evening, as there was going to be a huge street parade!  It was the annual birthday celebration for Kong Teck Choon Ong, the main temple deity!

With that knowledge, we continued on our travels.  All of a sudden the Textile Museum was in front of us!  It was open, it was free, it was destiny!  In we went.  Now for my regular blog readers who are mostly here for the sewing and the textiles, I’m afraid that there were no photos permitted inside.  Although the building itself is pretty old and decaying, the exhibition was terrific and showed a comprehensive history of the textiles of the area, particularly those of the original Bornean inhabitants and the ethnic communities of Sarawak.  Different types of weaving and regularly used motifs were explained, and there were some wonderful examples of beadwork.  Definitely worth a visit.

Right beside the textile museum was a modern shopping complex!  We headed inside, and saw pretty much the same shops we frequent at Norflanz.  Clare turns 17 in a little over a week, and we’d promised her a watch for her birthday.  There was a Swatch shop right in front of us, so we contributed to the Kuching economy before heading up to the food court.  Once again this was a fun way to look at similarities and differences.  Same concept that we’re familiar with in Australia, but the food stalls mostly served local dishes, each with it’s own speciality.

Next stop was India Street.  More textiles!  An open air market that actually has a high roof to protect it from the frequent rains.  We also found one of Kuching’s famous cat statues.  The word ‘kuching’ also means cat, and the city makes the most of that connection.  We were greatly amused to see our daughters were also a tourist attraction when a family group asked to have a photo with them.  I’ve actually been a little surprised that there are so few tourists of caucasian appearance here.  We have been very grateful for the wide use of English; it’s made interactions quite simple thus far.  English and Malay are actually the two official languages of Sarawak, and Chinese is also commonly spoken.

 

We’d planned to walk across the Darul Hana Bridge that connects the two sides of the river, and compliments the State Legislative Assembly Complex building, but it was closed in anticipation of New Year’s Eve celebrations.  I suspect that it will be a central focus for fireworks!  I have a feeling that we’re going to have lots of fun watching the NYE celebrations tomorrow night.  So a wander along the waterfront it was.  There are a number of boat cruises that you can take up and down the river, which we’ll do at some stage.  We noticed a number of copper plaques set into the paving, all part of a History Walk.  We’ll need to return and do the walk properly.  It describes the history of the area, with one plaque pre-19th century, then the next going through the changes from being part of the Sultanate of Brunei, through rebellion, to rule by English rajahs under the Sultanate of Bruei, to occupation by the Japanese during WWII, colonisation by the British, then finally independence as part of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

It was time to wander back to the hotel and chill a little.  The girls and I stopped for waffles and liquid nitrogen ice-cream on the way back – Dan chose to have a foot massage instead!  The boutique beside our hotel sells superb handcrafts, including all these repurposed fan covers that are now wonderful bowls or wall decorations!

After a rest Clare and I went on another wander to become more familiar with the area.  We went past St Thomas’s Cathedral, which was rapidly filling with people attending a Christmas carol service.  It is an Anglican cathedral.  The first Anglican church in Kuching was erected in 1851, and the present cathedral was completed in 1954. We also had terrific views of our accommodation from the street, and found a little Japanese bar down with an alleyway beside it – so atmospheric.  Every time we venture out there is more to see.

By now it was time to return to Jalan Carpenter in readiness for the street parade.  And what a parade it was!  Huge numbers of floats, one so large that people had to manually pick up and move some of the parked cars flanking the road further out of the way.  So much sound, so much colour, so many people marching, everyone laughing, and finally so many extremely loud firecrackers!  Firecrackers are generally illegal in Australia, so it was quite a novelty for the girls to see and hear them going off.

And now it’s Monday morning.  The tropical downpour is pouring down.  What will we get up to today?

We’re in Kuching!  Where is that, I hear some of you ask?  It’s in the state of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo.

I’m writing this early on Sunday morning. The sun isn’t up yet, but the first call to prayer was heard at 5.00am. My body is still on Melbourne time, and thinks that it is three hours later than it is. We left Melbourne late Friday afternoon, and flew to Brunei. Flight time was just over six hours. We were originally meant to continue on with a connecting flight, but due to technical difficulties with the connecting plane identified a couple of days earlier, Royal Brunei Airlines put us up in a hotel near the airport and we continued on with the two hour flight to Kuching the next morning. As it turned out, it probably turned out in our favour. Much better to sleep horizontally in a bed than arrive at what would have been 4.00am in our bodies’ time!

Flights and transfers all progressed fairly smoothly. Clare vomited on each flight, as she pretty much always does. Air sickness is such an unpleasant malady! Fortunately she feels fine after the event. Then we checked in to our hotel, The Marian Boutique Lodging House, which is right in the centre of old Kuching.

I still have a significant amount to learn about the culture and history of Malaysian Borneo. The Marian, where we are staying, was originally built by a Chinese businessman as a family home, completed in 1885. In 1933 it was sold to the Anglican mission and turned into St Mary’s boarding house that operated until 1967. It then became a Diocesan guesthouse until renovated and opened as a private hotel in 2013. While our room is quite small, the property is extensive and has many common areas for guests to relax in and enjoy. Just a note for those of you who might be interested in staying herer – this property isn’t suitable for those who can’t handle steps and stairs. There are plenty of both!

We enjoyed a wander around the local streets, scoping our location and eating options. We’re quite close to the waterfront and many places of interest to tourists. My family always enjoys popping in to a 7-11 and local cafes to see the similarities differences in food and drink availability and packaging between home and here. Milo seems to be a big hit locally!

When we arrived at our hotel there was a bride and grooom having photos taken on the property – as you can see, the hotel is lovely – and there were people setting up for a marriage proposal that was going to take place there in the evening!  Stella was quite concerned that it was a lot of trouble to be going to, and what would happen if the future bride didn’t say yes?  Fortunately we could tell from the clapping we heard at 8pm that she did say yes!

As I write this the rain is pouring down outside.  The weather in Kuching at this time of year is generally tops of around 30 degrees and lows of around 24 degrees.  It will rain at some stage every day – humidity is extremely high.  Just what you’d expect in the tropics!  As long as we’re somewhere with airflow it’s actually very comfortable.  And there are sweet cool drinks to buy everywhere we go.

Today we plan to visit museums (lots are open on Sundays) and generally take in the local sights.  Many shops and restaurants are closed on weekends, even moreso because it’s between Christmas and New Year.  The city is extremely diverse in terms of ethnicity and religion.  This is our first holiday in a predominantly Muslim country, and we are looking forward to learning more about the people and the history of the country in general.  We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to travel and enjoy the benefits that travel brings to us as a family.  Hopefully this will make us – and especially our daughters – more resilient and well-rounded people who see all the similarities between people as well as enjoying and understanding the differences.